I am a Tombstone Tourist: someone who loves to wander cemeteries. I find it akin to visiting a museum: an opportunity to enjoy rarely seen sculpture, intricate carvings, and amazing architecture, all in a tranquil outdoor setting. This blog is about cemetery culture, art, history, issues of death, and genealogy - subjects of current relevance. I usually find something that intrigues me and makes me want to dig deeper. Care to join me? Read on...

Friday, August 19, 2016

For
thousands of years, bodies have lain under the mire, waiting for discovery in
the murky depths of northwestern Europe’s numerous bogs – those wetlands made
up of decomposing plant material (peat) that locals cut and dried to heat their
homes.

Bog
bodies are the well-preserved (including mummified skin, hair and organs still
intact) remains of people who usually have died a violent death in the
swamplands of such countries as Denmark the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany. The oldest
known bog body dates back to 8000 BCE and consists of the skeletal remains of a
female known as Koelbjerg Woman. The oldest well-preserved bog body is called
Cashel Man, who dates to 2000 BCE and was discovered in Ireland.

Grauballe Man

Close
to 1,000 bodies have been discovered in the world; many subjected to violent deaths and left for the boglands to dispose of.
Researchers believe these people were either human sacrifices or criminals
punished for their crimes.

Tollund Man

Most
bog bodies date from the Iron Age when peat bogs covered a large area of
Europe. The most famous bog people of this era include the 2,400-year-old
Tollund Man, 2,000-year-old Lindow Man, and 1,500-year-old Grauballe Man. Pre-Roman villagers believed that they could appease, or have favors granted by their gods by tossing possessions, and people in the form of sacrifices,
into that slimy black pit. Most of the bodies bear similarities in the manner in
which they were bound or staked out to die indicating a ritualistic killing.

Bogs were also used as convenient “killing grounds” for the criminals of a society. Many still wear the ropes used to
strangle them, some bear the stab wounds that ended their lives, and others show
signs of the torture inflicted upon them.

Harald Bluetooth

Bog
bodies have also been identified by using the legend and lore of the area. In 1835,
Danish ditchdiggers came across the remarkably well-preserved body of a woman
who had been staked down and left to die in a place now called Gundhilde’s Bog.
The swamp was named after a legendary eighth-century Viking queen who, it was
said, was on her way to marry Danish king Harald Bluetooth when she was
ambushed and drowned. Apparently the legend was true.

The
U.S. has it’s own version of bog people in Florida. These remains are between 5,000 and 8,000 years old and consist only of
skeletons; skin and internal organs did not survive in this mire. Windover,
Florida is the premier bog site in the U.S. – where in 1982, the excavation of
a pond led to the discovery of these American bog people. The remains were found mostly lying on their
left sides in a fetal position with their heads aimed toward the west;
researchers believe that this may have been a community cemetery bog. Over 160 bodies were unearthed. The dig
ended in 1987 with only half of the excavations completed. It is now awaiting a new generation
of archaeologist with updated techniques to discover more.

But
bog people are not just those who died in the distant past – archeologists have
discovered the remains of Russian and German soldiers who fought in Poland
along the Eastern Front during WW1. And a WWII Russian pilot whose plane was hit
in-flight, crashed into a bog in northern Europe. His remains have been discovered, perfectly preserved for over half
a century.

Friday, August 12, 2016

For
the past few weeks Gold Star Families have been in the news, but many
Americans don’t know what the term means. Gold Star Families indicate immediate
relatives - the mothers, fathers, children and spouses of U.S. Armed Forces
members who died in battle or while supporting certain military activities. It
is a status no one wants, but so many must bear.

Gold Star Flag

The Gold Star refers to the service
flag, which families fly to show they have a loved one fighting orserving in the military during a period
of war or hostilities. Although the term Gold Star Family is fairly new, the
flags have been flown since World War One. A Blue Star (or stars) indicates family
members in the U.S. Armed Forces currently deployed during any war or conflict. If
a loved one is killed while serving, the blue star is replaced by a gold one to
indicate the ultimate sacrifice.

Grace Darling Seibold

The term “Gold Star Mothers” was coined by Grace Darling Seibold who banded a group
of mothers together after WW1 to support and comfort one another in the lose of
their children and family members.

In 1928, 25 women met in Washington D.C. to officially establish the American Gold
Star Mothers group. In 1936, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated the
last Sunday in September as National Gold Star Mother’s Day. (September 25,
2016)

Gold
Star Wives began before the end of WWII. It started as a group of wives banding together to support and
assist one another. Today, the group reaches out to those who
have recently lost a spouse, and works together supporting all surviving spouses.

Gold Star Families include fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons,
daughters, or other loved ones who lost a loved one who was in service to this nation. In 1947, a lapel pin was created and is presented to the family members of Armed Forces members killed in combat operations.

The
U.S. Army sums up the Gold Star Families sacrifice best: “The strength of our army is our soldiers; The strength of our soldiers is our families. The army recognizes that no one
has given more for the nation than the families of the fallen.”

Indeed, the sentiment applies to all of our fallen service personnel from every branch.

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